BOUNCE HOUSES ARE FLYING AWAY

By Trishna Buch When I was younger I always went to a lot of birthday parties. And at these parties there were a few staples: cake, presents, friends, games and bouncy houses. Of course, for any child, a bouncy house is a huge hit. We would try and cram as many of us as possible into these giant inflatable devices and then jump around like Tigger from the Winnie The Pooh series. We’d try and do flips and cartwheels, we’d try to jump high enough to reach the ceiling and we’d even play a game where some of us would be seated and the others would bounce, and we’d try to get the ones seated to be lifted a few inches into the air. It goes without saying, but the bounce houses were always the biggest hit of the parties. I never had one at my own birthday parties, but I made sure to go to every party where I knew one would be in attendance. Based on my own experiences, I would never assume that these bounce houses could be dangerous. But I would be wrong. A simple Internet search revealed that various bounce house related accidents have taken place—both inside the house and involving the house itself—that have caused harm and even death to children. An article written a year ago by WYFF said that “more than 113,000 people were injured in inflatables from 2003 to 2013, most of them children.” And reading the article from WYFF showed me that one of the most common bounce house related accidents take place when these devices blow away from their location and fly through the vicinity; sometimes with the children still inside. You can read more about these accidents at www.wyff4.com/article/10-of-the-worst-bouncehouse- accidents/9255869 That sounds straight like a scene from a television show, doesn’t it? And you would be right, because the show 9-1- 1 recently aired an episode which involved a runaway

bounce house that was pulled off its pegs, flew around with the children (and one adult) trapped inside and eventually stopped at a cliffside. Watching that episode, I thought to myself: there is no way this can happen in real life. Turns out, it can. You can read more about the episode at popculture.com/tv-shows/2018/01/18/911- bouncy-house-scene/. And just recently—this weekend, in fact—a child in California was trapped inside a bounce house as it blew onto a highway. The New York post says the child suffered minimal injuries and that the wind was a major contributing factor, but it leads me to think—how can we keep our bounce houses safe? You can read more about this incident at nypost.com/2018/05/13/wind-blows-bounce-house-withchild- inside-onto-freeway/. According to Make Safe Happen, there are several ways to make sure bounce houses are safe. For one thing, it is important to make sure that the people using the bounce house are all of a similar size. So that means no adults in the bounce house when there are children in it. I mean, I understand that there is something appealing about these devices to some adults, but the bottom line is that they are for children. There is no need for an adult to be in one at the same time as children, and this is further evidenced by the fact that this has been the cause for some of the accidents. Other ways to keep a bounce house safe is to always have adult supervision, make sure the children are using the device safely and start safe evacuation processes if “the bouncer begins to lose air, or if it’s too windy”. Make Safe Happen also provides tips on how to properly set up a bounce house, by stating that it needs to be placed in a location that is flat and even, away from objects that could stick out from the ground. It also needs to be away from items that could be dangerous, such as power lines and tree branches, and needs to be “anchored with long metal stakes that have been driven into the ground.” And if the bounce house is set up inside, it needs to be located away from walls. You can read more at makesafehappen. com/articles/bounce-house-safety-tips. Furthermore, a website called Policygenius spelt out a few more bounce house safety tips, including: only let children who are aged six and older use the devices, make sure they go into these bounce houses with nothing in their pockets and all their jewelry and eye glasses and other potentially sharp and dangerous objects removed from their person and check your state’s regulation on bounce houses. You can read more at www.policygenius.com/ blog/bounce-house-safety-tips/. Bounce houses are great fun for children, and—sometimes— adults. But it is our responsibility to make sure they are safe, so that the accidents involving them come to a minimum or, even better, a complete stop. It’s all about responsibility and making sure the devices are safe, secure and being used properly